Ralph Carl Anders Klarström, now Rådlund (born 17 December 1965 in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

), is a retired politician and the first party chairman for the

Sweden Democrats The Sweden Democrats ( , SD ) is a Nationalism, nationalist and Right-wing populism, right-wing populist political party in Sweden founded in 1988. As of 2024, it is the largest member of Sweden's Right-wing politics, right-wing bloc and the sec ...

1989–1995. Klarström became politically active as a teenager, attending meetings of the

Moderate Party The Moderate Party ( , , M), commonly referred to as the Moderates ( ), is a Liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative* * * * * List of political parties in Sweden, political party in Sweden. The party generally supports tax cuts, the free ma ...

and then the European Workers Party, the Swedish branch of the

LaRouche movement The LaRouche movement is a political and cultural network promoting the late Lyndon LaRouche and his ideas. It has included many organizations and companies around the world, which campaign, gather information and publish books and periodicals. ...

. In 1984, before the founding of the Sweden Democrats, Klarström had been connected with and attended gatherings of the Nordic Realm Party, an old-school national socialist party, as a seventeen year old. In the same year, he was also found guilty of making anonymous antisemitic phone calls to entertainer Hagge Geigert and was fined. He later claimed to have distanced himself from the Nordic Realm Party. Anders Klarström was a founding member of the

and participated in writing the first party platform in 1989 and wrote most of the 1993 program ahead of the general election that year. In the very beginning the party did not have a formal leader but a system where two persons acted as joint spokespersons for the party. Klarström held the position from late in 1988 and later became the first "real" party leader. During this time, he also participated in several television debates. He retired from party leadership after the elections of 1994, amid disagreements about political and organisational strategy. Klarström subsequently left the party and faded from public life until resurfacing with a biographical book in 2018 about the founding and his leadership of the SD. According to Klarström in the book, most of those who formed the party had already left it in 1992, and he was left almost alone in the organization before leaving at the time when a more moderate leadership took over in the mid-90s. A reviewer noted that had Klarström also quit the party along with the other founder members in 1992 and a new leadership hadn't taken over, the Sweden Democrats would have been a "footnote" of history and not grown into the party it is now.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Klarström, Anders 1965 births Living people Politicians from Gothenburg Leaders of political parties in Sweden Sweden Democrats politicians Right-wing populism in Sweden 20th-century Swedish politicians Swedish criminals Swedish neo-Nazis Former white supremacists